COLUMBUS - Battle lines were drawn yesterday as Gov. Ted Strickland vowed to veto a House-passed bill creating an independent audit committee beyond his reach to watch over state government.
The bill, pushed by Republican State Auditor Mary Taylor and passed along party lines by the GOP-controlled House, would have internal auditors employed by state agencies report to a separate five-member committee rather than department heads.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
The governor argued that the bill would expand state bureaucracy, costing taxpayers money. He prefers an executive order he signed earlier this year reforming internal controls of state government in the wake of scandals at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation under the previous administration.
"I think all of us were disappointed to learn that [BWC] independent auditors had brought to the attention of senior people there that there were problems, but nothing came of it,'' said Rep. Bill Batchelder (R., Medina).
An internal auditor at BWC raised early red flags about the bureau's investment in rare coins with former Toledo area coin dealer Tom Noe. Mr. Noe was subsequently convicted of theft for pilfering from that fund."This Enron-like audit structure failed Enron, and it's going to fail the state of Ohio…," said Rep. Mike Skindell (D., Lakewood). "It will do very little to restore the confidence of Ohioans."
He suggested that the creation of an outside five-member audit committee outside the umbrella of the governor's office would cost taxpayers "tens of millions of dollars." He said state agencies for which auditors are assigned are likely to cut programs and services to pay the bill.
Ms. Taylor, the last Republican holding nonjudicial statewide office, said her proposal goes further than Mr. Strickland's executive order, which would expire with his administration.
The state Senate and House would each appoint two members, one Democrat and one Republican, to the independent committee. The governor would appoint the fifth.
The bill is silent on the issue of how much the committee would cost, although Republicans have argued that many of the internal auditors are already working for the state. It would just be a question of who they would answer to.
Mr. Strickland said Democrats will offer an amendment that would take his executive order and place it in law, a move designed to address the issue that the rules could change with each tenant of the governor's mansion.
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com,
or 614-221-0496.
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